InFamous: Second Son CES 2014 Gameplay Video Is Frustrating

Sort of new footage for the PlayStation 4 exclusive inFamous: Second Son has gone public from this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The event played host to a ton of cool gadgets and content that sometimes frequently had a thing or two to do with a little $60 billion dollar industry known as video games.

The gameplay comes courtesy of Skewed 'n Reviewed. The video is off-screen footage, so you'll have to take the Bourne Identity shaky-cam effect and low-lit environments like a couple of scrubs bootlegging footage from a Chinese movie theater playing the latest Transformers movie as part of the package. Nevertheless, there are a few things we can take away from the footage that may not have been readily obvious before.

The first major thing (other than that the guy playing was suffering from inverted thumb-stick syndrome) was that the AI was relentlessly passe. I previously wrote about the game's AI sucking harder than a Michael Bay stage presentation, but I think in this honest video captured from honest gamers, we get to see just how atrocious the AI really is.

The enemy effectively avoids using any sort of progressive tactics or measures to entrap or challenge players. For the most part the protagonist, Delsin Rowe, is a magnetic bullet sponge for the mindless hordes of faceless security forces. They shoot, and shoot, and shoot, and shoot. No matter how many bullets Rowe sponges up like SJW beta males during their time of the month, the guy just keeps on trucking like major publishers pushing for DRM-service-laden games until it becomes the norm.

Nothing really hurts Rowe until the guy playing accidentally kills himself from blowing up the tower he's standing under. Nothing gets the job done like being crushed under physics-based concrete towers.

After respawning, Rowe continues to melt down foes with little or no opposition other than the fact that the enemy just keeps incessantly shooting. The slice of gameplay may be that way for demonstration purposes, but with a spring release looming furiously over head, we do have to start questioning when we'll see competent AI on display at some point?

Apart from the AI, the only other issue I scrounged up from the video was the fact that Rowe seems to be able to spit out fireballs in a relentlessly unchecked manner. Hopefully there will be some sort of power-limit in play in the final game so it's not just fireball spam like someone with a down-to-forward thumb-flex disease playing Street Fighter. I mean, this guy shoots more flames in rapid succession than critics spitting fire to burn down the latest Tyler Perry movie. Some sort of energy limit might force a slightly more tactical form of gameplay... or at least, one can hope.

InFamous: Second Son is set for release exclusively on the PlayStation 4 from Sucker Punch Productions starting March 21st in just a little over two months time. I sure hope they iron out some of the game's shortcomings (which obviously aren't in the graphics department) before the game hits store shelves.

If the video above was a bit frustrating for you to watch, you can check out the gameplay video below, which shows a slightly more proper methodology for abusing the game's powers and looking like a freaking badass while doing it. Enjoy.